PricewaterhouseCoopers warned it will face claims for damages on behalf of collapsed Icelandic bank's creditors.

Administrators to Landsbanki, the failed Icelandic bank behind the Icesave internet deposit account scandal, have accused the firm's former auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, of negligence, warning the accounting firm they expect to claim damages on behalf of creditors.

Landsbanki's creditors include more than 100 UK councils which placed a total £900m with Icesave and — unlike British retail savers — were not protected by a deposit guarantee. The negligence allegations set out at a creditors' meeting yesterday relate to PwC's audit of Landsbanki's 2007 accounts and an endorsement of its half-year financial update six months later. . .

The accusation against PwC's Iceland operations comes after a year of forensic investigations conducted by a team from Deloitte in London. As well as signalling their intention to pursue damages from PwC, administrators have filed a legal claim against former Landsbanki executives relating to losses of more than 30bn kronur (£165m). 01-Dec-10.

A petition for help from the British Government signed by over 400 depositors who lost money in the collapse of Landsbanki Guernsey has been rejected.

Because the Crown Dependency did not have a deposit protection scheme, savers were not included in the UK Government's bail-out, and are still fighting for their return of their money.

The petition, which was submitted by campaign group The Landsbanki Guernsey Depositors Action Group (LGDAG), contained 433 signatures and implored the UK government "to support British savers in Landsbanki Guernsey in seeking the full and prompt return of their savings.”

The Government response however declared that because Landsbanki Guernsey was not a subsidiary of a UK bank but an Icelandic company, “regulatory oversight of Landsbanki Guernsey Limited is the responsibility of the Guernsey Financial Supervision Commission and therefore arrangements for depositors in Landsbanki Guernsey are a matter for the Government of Guernsey.” 16-Nov-10.

Deloitte, the joint administrators of Landsbanki Guernsey, will apply to a Guernsey court next month to allow the failed Icelandic bank subsidiary to be placed into liquidation, according to a statement on the Deloitte website. . .

The report that Deloitte is expecting to seek to liquidate Landsbanki Guernsey comes a day after news that the UK government had rejected a petition by the depositors’ group for compensation, on the grounds that Landsbanki Guernsey was "not a subsidiary of a UK bank, but of an Icelandic company". . .

In its statement, Deloitte said the joint administrators had "notified creditors of their intention, subject to court approval, to place the bank into liquidation, and to make a further distribution to creditors of up to 7.5p in the pound". . .

“This is the day that many local pensioners who deposited their life savings in the Cheshire Building Society – which was taken over by the Icelandic bank – or into the 'Guernsey Icesave' – have been fearing for the last two years,” said Neil Dickens, chairman of the local chapter of the LGDAG.

“My assumption is that we’re looking at the bottom range of 85p in the pound, because for the first time, they’re saying that the range could be outside the range of 85p to 91p in the pound," . . .

Dickens said the Guernsey Landsbanki depositors were dismayed to find that their hopes of receiving even as modest a payment as 90p in the pound increasingly seemed unlikely to be realised.

"What we want to know is, why we are not being made whole, like every other person who deposited in Icesave was," Dickens said. By Helen Burggraf, International Adviser website, 16-Nov-10.

(Reuters) - Iceland's business lobby said on Tuesday it had seen the outline of a draft deal on repaying Britain and the Netherlands and that it was much improved from one rejected by voters in March. . .

. . . which would involve Iceland repaying 40-60 billion Icelandic crowns (224 million pounds) to the British and Dutch.

That is much lower than the $5 billion (3 billion pounds) that the governments paid out to investors in high-interest Icelandic bank accounts though it is understood that a big portion of the debt could be covered by a sale of assets in failed bank Landsbanki.

The Dutch and Icelandic finance ministries said no deal had been reached but that progress was being made. 16-Nov-10.

The UK government has rejected calls for assistance from British savers who lost millions in the collapse of Landsbanki Guernsey.

The Landsbanki Guernsey Depositors Action Group petitioned the UK government for support in its campaign to recover savings lost when the Guernsey branch of Icelandic bank Landsbanki collapsed in October 2008.

The mostly expatriate customers of Landsbanki Guernsey have only received 30p in the pound from the bank’s administrator and cannot claim compensation because the Crown Dependency did not have a depositors’ protection scheme in 2008.

‘The Landsbanki Guernsey Depositors Action Group calls on the UK Government to support British savers in Landsbanki Guernsey in seeking the full and prompt return of their savings,’ said Matthew Dorman of the action group, which has pushed the States of Guernsey for compensation.

The UK government said Landsbanki Guernsey was an Icelandic bank and was the responsibility of Guernsey’s financial regulator. The Treasury noted that many banks do not allow expatriates to open onshore accounts but stated this was purely a commercial decision.[Ends] 16-Nov-1-.

It is now believed that 93 percent of Icesave and other priority foreign claimants can be covered by the assets of Old Landsbanki. [Our emphasis.]

The bank’s resolution committee presented its accounts for the third quarter and a claimants’ meeting in London today, RUV reports.

There was an ISK 18 billion (USD 161.3 million) improvement in the capital retrieval of the old bank during the quarter. According to the resolution committee, roughly ISK 92 billion is now expected to fall on the shoulders of the Icelandic taxpayer – which is a lower figure than previously estimated.

The rate of recovery for domestic claimants in Icelandic kronur is slightly lower, at an estimated 86 percent. [Ends] 10-Nov-10.

In the wake of the Landsbanki Guernsey bank collapse and the loss of depositor savings, confidence in Guernsey as a financial safe haven continues to be questioned as its government equivocates over compensation plans.

The States of Guernsey Treasurer Charles Parkinson said that if another bank collapsed tomorrow, the taxpayer would have to foot the bill until the money could be recovered from the industry. . . .As a consequence of the 2008 Landsbanki collapse approximately £12 million is still owed to the 1,600 depositors, a third of whom are expatriates.

The island dropped four places in this year's Global Financial Centre Index, while the value of Guernsey deposits for the three month period to the end of June this year fell by nearly £2 billion. 03-Nov-10.

(Reuters) - Negotiations on repayment of $5 billion (3 billion pounds) lost by British and Dutch investors in Iceland's 2008 banking crash are likely to be resolved by the end of this year, the island's foreign minister said on Tuesday. . .

The minister [Ossur Skarphedinsson] said he expected the parties to be able to conclude the talks within a month, "In a manner that both sides will be, perhaps not happy with, but content." 02-Nov-10.

Guernsey's States have confirmed banks threatened to pull money out of the island if the depositors' compensation scheme was not changed.

The scheme was set up after the collapse of Landsbanki Guernsey.

It offers one hundred million pounds of compensation and is paid for by a levy on all local banks.

Twenty million pounds of that money has to be provided up front but the banks wanted that removed. They said they would move deposits to another jurisdiction such as Jersey which does not have that requirement. [Ends] 18-Oct-10.